In court papers filed today (PDF),
the United States Department of Justice requested that George W. Bush,
Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Paul
Wolfowitz be granted procedural immunity in a case alleging that they
planned and waged the Iraq War in violation of international law.

Plaintiff
Sundus Shaker Saleh, an Iraqi single mother and refugee now living in
Jordan, filed a complaint in March 2013 in San Francisco federal court
alleging that the planning and waging
of the war constituted a “crime of aggression” against Iraq, a legal
theory that was used by the Nuremberg Tribunal to convict Nazi war
criminals after World War II.

"The
DOJ claims that in planning and waging the Iraq War, ex-President Bush
and key members of his Administration were acting within the legitimate
scope of their employment and are thus immune from suit,” chief counsel
Inder Comar of Comar Law said.

The “Westfall Act certification,” submitted pursuant to the Westfall Act of 1988, permits the Attorney General, at his or her discretion, to substitute the United States as the defendant and essentially grant absolute immunity to government employees for actions taken within the scope of their employment.

In her lawsuit, Saleh alleges that:

-- Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz began planning the Iraq War in 1998 through
their involvement with the “Project for the New American Century,” a
Washington DC non-profit that advocated for the military overthrow of
Saddam Hussein.

-- Once they came to power, Saleh alleges that Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz convinced other Bush officials to invade Iraq by using 9/11 as an excuse to mislead and scare the American public into supporting a war.

-- Finally, she claims that the United States failed to obtain United Nations approval prior to the invasion, rendering the invasion illegal and an act of impermissible aggression.

“The good
news is that while we were disappointed with the certification, we were
prepared for it,” Comar stated. “We do not see how a Westfall Act
certification is appropriate given that Ms. Saleh alleges that the
conduct at issue began prior to these defendants even entering into
office. I think the Nuremberg prosecutors, particularly American Chief
Prosecutor Robert Jackson, would be surprised to learn that planning a
war of aggression at a private non-profit, misleading a fearful public,
and foregoing proper legal authorization somehow constitute lawful
employment duties for the American president and his or her cabinet.”

"Rupert Murdoch's newspapers and TV channels have supported all the US-UK wars over the past 30 years, from Margaret Thatcher and the Falklands war in 1982, through George Bush Senior and the first Gulf War in 1990-91, Bill Clinton's war in Yugoslavia in 1999 and his undeclared war on Iraq in 1998, George W. Bush's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with Tony Blair on his coat tails, and up to the present, with Barack Obama continuing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and now adding Libya to his tally of seven wars."

"The week before the world's largest anti-war protests ever and the United Nation's rejection of the Iraq War in mid-February 2003, Murdoch told a reporter that in launching a war Bush was acting "morally" and "correctly" while Blair was "full of guts" and "extraordinarily courageous." Murdoch promoted the looming war as a path to cheap oil and a healthy economy. He said he had no doubt that Bush would be "reelected" if he "won" the war and the U.S. economy stayed healthy. That's not an idle statement from the owner of the television network responsible for baselessly prompting all of the other networks to call the 2000 election in Bush's favor during a tight race in Florida that Bush actually lost."

John Nichols:

"When the war in Iraq began, the three international leaders who were most ardently committed to the project were US President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australian Prime Minister John Howard. On paper, they seemed like three very different political players: Bush was a bumbling and inexperienced son of a former president who mixed unwarranted bravado with born-again moralizing to hold together an increasingly conservative Republican Party; Blair was the urbane 'modernizer' who had transformed a once proudly socialist party into the centrist 'New Labour' project; Howard was the veteran political fixer who came up through the ranks of a coalition that mingled traditional conservatives and swashbuckling corporatists.

"But they had one thing in common. They were all favorites of Rupert Murdoch and his sprawling media empire, which began in Australia, extended to the 'mother country' of Britain and finally conquered the United States. Murdoch's media outlets had helped all three secure electoral victories. And the Murdoch empire gave the Bush-Blair-Howard troika courage and coverage as preparations were made for the Iraq invasion.

"Murdoch-owned media outlets in the United States, Britain and Australia enthusiastically cheered on the rush to war and the news that it was a 'Mission Accomplished.'"